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Drinking Fountain For Horses

Thank you for the article on the Immaculate Conception Church on East 14th Street [''Streetscapes/A Protestant Complex Converted to Catholicism,'' July 26]. As a boy coming home from school in the early 1950's, I would wait for the bus directly in front of the church. I clearly recall the drinking fountain, which was still spouting water as late as the early 1950's.

If you look at the old photograph, directly in front of the drinking fountain, but at the curb, is something that looks like a bathtub. This was a drinking fountain for horses! It was still operating in the early 1950's, used by the rare horse and wagon that was still on the streets at the time. The stable was on East 12th, between Avenues B and C, opposite the school I once attended. The fountain stopped operating sometime in the 1950's, and was probably removed in the 1960's. Until a general repaving of the area much later, one could still see the distinct spot in the ground where the horse trough had stood.

I am too young to recall the original church on the north side of 14th Street, but a family album does contain a picture of that first church being demolished (c. 1945) as Stuyvesant Town was built. Your article answers for me my question as to how the church moved from the north side of 14th Street to a church building on the present south side, which was obviously built much earlier than 1945.